AMYGDALA: Lying
deep in the center of the limbic emotional brain, this
powerful structure, the size and shape of an almond, is
constantly alert to the needs of basic survival including
sex, emotional reactions such as anger and fear. Consequently
it inspires aversive cues, such as sweaty palms, and has
recently been associated with a range of mental conditions
including depression to even autism. It is larger in male
brains, often enlarged in the brains of sociopaths and
it shrinks in the elderly.

BRAIN
STEM: The part of the brain
that connects to the spinal cord. The brain stem controls
functions basic to the survival of all animals, such
as heart rate, breathing, digesting foods, and sleeping.
It is the lowest, most primitive area of the human brain.

CEREBELLUM: Two
peach-size mounds of folded tissue located at the top of
the brain stem, the cerebellum is the guru of skilled,
coordinated movement (e.g., returning a tennis serve or
throwing a slider down and in) and is involved in some
learning pathways.

CEREBRUM: This
is the largest brain structure in humans and accounts for
about two-thirds of the brain’s mass. It is divided
into two sides — the left and right hemispheres—that
are separated by a deep groove down the center from the
back of the brain to the forehead. These two halves are
connected by long neuron branches called the corpus callosum which
is relatively larger in women’s brains than in men’s.
The cerebrum is positioned over and around most other brain
structures, and its four lobes are specialized by function
but are richly connected. The outer 3 millimeters of “gray
matter” is the cerebral
cortex which consists of closely packed
neurons that control most of our body functions, including
the mysterious state of consciousness, the senses, the
body’s motor skills, reasoning and language.

The
Frontal Lobe is the most recently-evolved
part of the brain and the last to develop in young
adulthood. It’s dorso-lateral prefrontal circuit
is the brain’s top executive. It organizes responses
to complex problems, plans steps to an objective, searches
memory for relevant experience, adapts strategies to
accommodate new data, guides behavior with verbal skills
and houses working memory. Its orbitofrontal circuit
manages emotional impulses in socially appropriate
ways for productive behaviors including empathy, altruism,
interpretation of facial expressions. Stroke in this
area typically releases foul language and fatuous behavior
patterns.

The
Parietal Lobe receives and processes sensory
information from the body including calculating location
and speed of objects.

The
Occipital Lobe processes
visual data and routes it to other parts of the brain
for identification and storage.

HIPPOCAMPUS: located
deep within the brain, it processes new memories for
long-term storage. If you didn't have it, you couldn't
live in the present, you'd be stuck in the past of old
memories. It is among the first functions to falter in
Alzheimer's.

HYPOTHALAMUS:Located
at the base of the brain where signals from the brain
and the body’s hormonal system interact, the hypothalamus
maintains the body’s status quo. It monitors numerous
bodily functions such as blood pressure and body temperature,
as well as controlling body weight and appetite.

THALAMUS: Located
at the top of the brain stem, the thalamus acts as a
two-way relay station, sorting, processing, and directing
signals from the spinal cord and mid-brain structures
up to the cerebrum, and, conversely, from the cerebrum
down the spinal cord to the nervous system.

Building
Mental MuscleOver 230,000 copies sold
in the USA alone,
plus translations into 14 languages worldwide.